Denver : Day 3

If you missed Day 1 or Day 2 in Denver, you can read them and catch up if you like! You can also just jump right in, as Day 3 was SOMUCHFUNITWASBANANAS.

We woke up after noon--again (hey, what are vacations for?)--and were very hungry. I looked up some places near the Great Divide Brewery we planned to tour and (thought) selected one. We parked near the restaurant and started down the block, only to be stopped in our tracks by a sidewalk sign for Biker Jim's boasting gourmet hotdog combos (Reindeer hotdog???) with fries and a PBR for under $9.

I don't even know why we kept walking after that, but what matters is we turned around and knew we had to have a reindeer-dog.

We walked in and looked over the menu on the wall (flow-chart style) and I selected the reindeer hotdog while Shawn decided to try the pheasant+rattlesnake hotdog.

While waiting for our food as well as while we ate, we enjoyed great '90's music and sports on TV. It was a really good lunch.

After our bellies were verrrry happy, we walked over to the Great Divide right in time to shuffle into the first tour's line. It was MUCH different than Coor's! Almost everyone had a beer in-hand as we walked out to the production floor. Yes! Finally! Right up next to big tanks and big smells of beer-making.



These kegs were batched on Shawn's birthday!

They do pretty much everything right there including bottling and storage, so we got a full tour! After the tour we both enjoyed our own very reasonably priced ($3) samples of 3 different beers. I tried the Raspberry Ale, Chocolate Yeti and the Samurai rice beer. All were very good! Shawn enjoyed his sampler and we ended up taking home an 18-pack of mixed ales. We have since even enjoyed some (at Cake). After drinking and touring we went back to the hotel to relax for a minute and get ready for dinner at TAG's restaurant side of the rawbar.

I'm tempted to make my own post about TAG in detail but since I don't have justifying photos to accompany the review of the experience I will just smush it in here. We arrived and were seated right away at the Chef's Counter even though it was very busy.

We were approached as if we ourselves didn't know where we were (ie, a place which serves kangaroo and the like) but they did a very good job explaining the menus to us in any case. We selected the seared kangaroo loin appetizer, the crazy salmon maki (complete with spicy cheeto "tempura" crust!) and the local bavette steak with potatoes and roasted veggies. After ordering we looked around at the chic surroundings but kept being drawn to the action in the kitchen; it was starting to get harried. Plates were being set out to run, entrees from tables were being re-heated and tempers were starting to edge; it was almost like Hell's Kitchen! It was so entertaining because of the quietly growling nature of it that we didn't realize our own dish was being set in front of us. Everything was simply delicious and amazing. It was the best meal of the trip in my opinion. The only thing that made it better was the churros (they say the oil is not infused with crack per my specific questioning, but I still have a hunch...) and the cupcake ice cream. They have some wild ice cream flavors (mmm... burnt sugar!) but I had to have the cupcake when I saw it contained sprinkles. We meant to share the desserts but Shawn took the churros and I took the cupcake ice cream halfway through each and quietly homnommed the rest of each on our own. I don't even want to know how many calories were consumed in that restaurant.

We went back to the hotel and changed to get ready for Church again. We wore all black, put the mohawk up and I put up some pigtails. Not low braided ones, but the ones you used to wear with those ball-holders... yep. We looked cool.
Sunday at the Church is apparently usually awesome. This week, someone had rented it out and they only had the basement open... it was Goth/Industrial night. So the black getups we had with our hairdo's let us blend in and we went anyway. We had a great time with each other and we each had a drink and watched the Goth kids watch us; then one came up to us. He spoke a mile a minute, was obsessed with a Clockwork Orange and was talking about drinking whiskey + milk with people as if we knew who they were. It reminded us of:

Yeah... South Park isn't too far from Denver. Makes ya think.
That night we did so well getting to Church and back; we walked almost 5 miles roundtrip in our clubwear. I enjoyed the walking with Shawn, just talking and seeing things. When we got back to the room around 2:30AMish we collapsed in a pile of hairspray, makeup and swollen feet. We spent every moment of that day living it up!